Right Pulse

The front cover of the latest edition of the Spectator about Ian Plimer’s best selling book, Heaven and Earth.

Hilarious. It has drawn fire from of one angry Guardian journalist, who lists criticisms against the book, one of which is almost as funny as the cover of the Spectator:

He (Plimer) claims that only 4% of the CO2 in the atmosphere is produced by humans. In fact the pre-industrial concentration was roughly 280 parts per million. Human activities have now raised this to 387ppm. Work it out for yourself.

Why, because as a typically innumerate left-wing journalist you can’t? Let’s ignore the difference between rates of human carbon emissions compared to observed increases (about half). Nothing in the link given by the journalist to support his case says it isn’t around 4 per cent. But again, let’s not argue at the margins. Instead of using 4 per cent, let’s say randomly that 8 per cent of C02 is produced by humans, double what the Guardian claims it isn’t. C02 only accounts for around 0.0384 per cent of the atmosphere to begin with, which would mean total human caused carbon emissions would account for only 0.003072 per cent of the atmosphere. It’s hardly scary stuff. So relax.

UPDATE I

The Huffington Post is also joining the counter-insurgency with basic scientific falsehoods.

CO2 — our leading contribution to heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere

Ah, no. Water vapour is the largest greenhouse gas. Continuing:

Returning to the facts — before the emergence of human industry, there were 280 parts per million (ppm) of CO2 in the atmosphere. Now, as the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration informs us, there are 387 ppm. Not “the tiniest fraction,” but a significant jump — the predicted result of pouring billions of tonnes of the stuff into the atmosphere every year at an ever-increasing rate.

This is the same half-truth espoused by the Guardian (see above). The journalist has a hard time distinguishing between ppm and an element’s fraction in the atmosphere.